Jain Journal 1993 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 63

222
JAIN JOURNAL
animate, and inanimate are truly contrary but not transience and permanence which are only apparently so, they simultaneously co-exist in an object, Anekānta expresses only those consistent qualities which appear to be contrary to each other but they really are complementary forming the nature of substance. Anekanta and syādvāda are very in. tricate and important doctrines whose understanding must be thorough and deep.
Saptabhangi-naya--the logic of seven conditional modes of predication is the dialectical process in which thesis and anti-thesis reconcile in a higher synthesis. This is a syadvädic reconcitation of conflicting approaches about the reality.
When we speak of a thing as self existing entity we mean that it cxists in its own substance (dravya), space (ksetra), time (käla) and essence (bhāva). Without a clear conception of this quadruplet pertaining to a thing, we can not know of that thing as an existential reality. Thus from the point of view of its own quadruplet the "is-ness' of the thing in question is established. At the same time, from the point of view of the quadruplets of all things other than this one, its "is-not-ness" is implied. Thus a thing is (asti) and also "is-not" (nāsti) and since it can not be said to be "is" and "is-not" at one and the same timg it is also "inexplicable" (avaktavya). These three conditions produce seven permutations ; asti, nästi, asti-năsti, avaktavya, asti-avaktavya, nástiavaktavya and asti-násti-avaktavya. And in order to avoid the pitfall of being misunderstood the speaker uses the adverb 'syat' before everyone of these modes of predication. Thus syadvada curbs down, limits and harmonises the absolutist views conveyed by individual stand-points (nayas).5
The theory of relativity formulated by Einstein, the great scientist cum philosopher of the modern age matches very much with the ane. kāntavāda and syādvāda of Jainism. The four directions - East, West, North, South are relative to one another. If East is East and West is West, which is East and which is West ? India which is East to tho Americans, has always been and will remain West to the Chinese and Japanese. It is this powerful instrument in the hands of Jain philosophers with the help of which they have steered clear of nihilism and absolute monism. The theory of relativity fosters a rational outlook
5 Jain, Dr. J. P., Religion and Culture of Jainas, p. 66.